


Fallen Angels That Go Bump in the Night

by SophieAyase



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F, Halloween, Trick or Treat 2017, Trick or Treat: Chocolate Box, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 15:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12135603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophieAyase/pseuds/SophieAyase
Summary: Ruby and Maru are teamed up for Yohane's test of courage. But the auditorium is a lot spookier at Halloween than during an Aqours performance.





	Fallen Angels That Go Bump in the Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rubylily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubylily/gifts).



“And now, my little demons, the time has come.” Yoshiko chuckled darkly. “Prepare for YOHANE’S TEST OF COURAGE!”

Her classmates were unimpressed. A few weeks earlier, they might have cowered in fear, but by now they’d grown so accustomed to her flights of fancy that they were no longer fazed. Yoshiko ignored this and continued her performance. “You have your assignments,” she intoned. “The first pair to return with all of their demons” – she indicated a crude cardboard cutout that vaguely resembled a horned devil – “will win the contest and be named my most faithful little demons!”

She continued to chatter, but Hanamaru leaned over to whisper to Ruby. “I don’t get why Yoshiko-chan was put in charge of our Halloween event, zura,” she said.

Ruby smiled. “She’s scary enough,” she whispered back.

“She doesn’t make much sense, though.”

Ruby shook her head. “I’m just glad I was paired off with Maru-chan,” she said as she reached over for her friend’s hand. “Anything would be fun with you!”

Maru squeezed the smaller girl’s hand. “I hope so, zura.”

* * *

Ruby and Maru pushed open the door to the auditorium. In the dark, it seemed a lot less friendly and a lot more spooky than it did when it was all lit up.

“Are you scared, zura?” Maru asked.

Ruby’s eyes flashed with determination. “I want to find those demons and show everyone how brave we are,” she said quietly.

“O-oh.” Maru wasn’t surprised by Ruby’s declaration. Despite her timidity, Ruby could be unexpectedly brave when the situation called for it. Maru, on the other hand, grew meeker as things got tougher.

Ruby, however, was so focused she failed to notice her girlfriend’s fear. “Why don’t we look in the storage rooms?” she suggested, her tone businesslike.

It wasn’t the first time Ruby had pushed ahead and pulled her along, Maru reflected, but she was still taken aback sometimes when her sweet, quiet Ruby showed her spine of steel. She nodded and followed Ruby across the large room, glancing at the shadows on the walls from time to time.

Ruby marched to one of the storage rooms and pulled open its door. Or rather, she tried to, but it was too heavy. “Can you help, Maru-chan?” she asked. Maru obliged wordlessly, and with their combined efforts the door slowly opened.

“I’ll search on this side,” Ruby murmured, gesturing to the left. “You search over there, Maru-chan.”

Maru nodded, too embarrassed to admit she didn’t want to be separated. Besides, there was nothing to be afraid of.

Ruby frowned to herself as she scanned the aisles of boxes for anything out of place. If she were Yoshiko-chan, where would she hide something? Then again, maybe she shouldn’t try to get into the fallen angel’s head. She giggled to herself as she pulled out a crate that seemed to be full of stage props.

_“ZURA!”_

Ruby snapped her head to face where the sudden cry had come from. “Hanamaru-chan?” she asked loudly.

There was no reply.

She rose to her feet and started walking around the large divider in the middle of the room. “Maru-chan?” she repeated. Still no response. By now she was running toward where Maru had disappeared.

Ruby gulped as she stared down the aisle to see that Maru had vanished. Her bravery had disappeared too, and she felt herself shivering and her eyes watering. “Maru-chan!” she whimpered. If she’d been harmed, what would Ruby do?

Then a thought occurred to her. Yoshiko-chan wouldn’t deliberately hurt any of their classmates. She could be scary, but she was ultimately harmless. Ruby nodded definitively to herself and summoned up her courage to investigate.

As she reached the point where she thought Maru had disappeared, she heard something faint, almost unidentifiable. She stopped in her tracks and listened intently.

There was some sound coming from below the floor. It sounded almost human, but with an odd rumble. What if Yohane really had summoned a demon, if only by accident, and it had kidnapped Maru-chan? Ruby didn’t want to think about that!

She crept further down the aisle, closer to the sound. Suddenly she was able to make it out. “Ruby-chan!” a voice wailed. Ruby felt her body go cold. Had the demon decided to make her its next prey?

“Ruby-chan,” the voice cried again. But it didn’t sound menacing. If anything, it seemed scared.

“Ruby-chan, _help_ ,” the voice pleaded. Finally, Ruby realised the voice was none other than her girlfriend.

“Maru-chan!” she exclaimed to herself. But why did she sound so strange? If Yoshiko-chan had allowed Maru-chan to be hurt, she’d… well, she didn’t know what she would do, but she’d be very upset.

Unsure of what to do, she took another few steps forward – then tripped and almost fell. She frowned to herself and looked down at the floor. Then she gasped. She’d tripped on the handle of a trap door!

She knelt beside the door and tugged at it. The wood creaked, but it slowly gave way, millimeter by millimeter, until finally it came loose. Ruby lifted it up and over, then peered down. Maru was staring up, her eyes bright like a child who’d just been given her favorite toy. “Ruby-chan, you saved me.” She smiled widely.

“Hanamaru-chan.” Ruby grinned back. “Are you okay?”

Maru frowned. “I guess I set off Yoshiko-chan’s booby trap, zura. I was just looking at the shelves when I fell down. I think I’m okay. I just had a lot of dust get in my nose, zura.” So that was why her voice had sounded so strange.

“Ruby-chan, can you help me out?” Maru said. Oh, right.

Ruby glanced to her left to see a ladder leaning against the shelves. This must have been exactly what Yoshiko-chan had intended, she realised. “Here, Maru-chan.” She lowered the ladder into the small pit where Maru stood, guiding it into the other girl’s hands.

Maru steadied the ladder on the floor, then climbed up to the main floor.

“I was scared, zura,” she said, as she hugged Ruby.

“I was too, Maru-chan,” Ruby replied.

Maru shivered as she looked down at the hole in the floor. “Let’s stay together, zura,” she said.

Ruby grinned and clutched her hand again. “All the time!” she said.

**Author's Note:**

> I really enjoyed writing this – Ruby playing Scooby-Doo, assisted by Maru. Originally I was going to have poor Ruby scared witless by the fallen angel, but I remembered [this picture](http://love-live.wikia.com/wiki/File:Dengeki_G%27s_Mag_Apr_2017_Ruby.jpg) (which I once saw captioned something like "Those cyberbullies are going to be sorry they messed with Ruby") and got the idea that she'd completely overcome her timidity when the situation called for it. Until, of course, her Maru is threatened.


End file.
